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Days before Canadian superstar Georges St-Pierre won his bout at UFC 129 at the Rogers Centre last April, a unanimous decision was already in among Toronto business owners like Carlos Gavilanes about the true victor of the bloody cage match: the cash register.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship went the distance for Toronto tourism and for local businesses, which took in an estimated $40 million from the most successful fight night in UFC history.

“We were completely sold out. It was our busiest night so far,” said Gavilanes of his new sports grill location at King St. W. and Duncan St., which opened on Super Bowl Sunday last February.

His staff got an early jump on the much-hyped welterweight matchup between St-Pierre and Jake Shields by pre-selling tickets at $20 a pop to watch it on the bar’s 100 flat screen TVs. They sold out all 450 seats, even though the sporting event was being held live just two blocks away.

The April 30 mixed martial arts show doubled the largest gate and attendance records (55,724) in UFC history. It also set a single-day event gate record for the domed stadium at $11.5 million.

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“We could have sold 100,000 tickets (if we had the capacity), let alone the 55,000 we did sell,” says Silvio D’Addario, vice-president of events for Rogers Centre.

“It provided a huge opportunity for Toronto to showcase itself to the rest of the world,” he adds in an interview.

The spectacle did indeed put Toronto on the map for international tourists, with tickets sold on every continent except Antarctica, notes Tom Wright, director of the UFC’s Canadian operations.

“There’s no question this was not only a local event but a global event,” he says.

Even though there were concerns about the violent nature of the show, there’s no denying the popularity of the controversial event to Canadian cities, says Wright. Montreal has already hosted four UFC events and set the second-highest attendance record last December after Toronto. Two others have been held in Vancouver.

“It helps the breadth of offerings the city has to attract people,” says Alan Middleton, a marketing professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business.

“This was a one-off with a big presence. It begins to put Toronto into the tourist’s ‘mind map’,” he says.

So far Toronto has been good at drawing in families but not so when it comes to younger tourists, says Middleton, adding that this event was important in that it brought in mostly an under-30 audience.

“They are the future of tourism,” he says.

Overall, Moneris Solutions, Canada’s largest credit and debit card processor, issued a report last month showing a substantial increase in dollars spent in the city on Saturday, April 30, the day of the highly-anticipated Toronto event.

Restaurants enjoyed a 19.2 per cent jump in dollars spent compared week-over-week. Similarly, bars and pubs experienced a 15.7 per cent increase — confirming that in addition to the 55,724 fans at the Rogers Centre, many more watched the popular event outside their home.

The Moneris report also showed a sizable rise in retail spending from people who made their way to the downtown core. Apparel and sporting goods stores saw a 41.3 per cent and a 33 per cent jump in sales respectively.

And many people travelled to Toronto to experience the UFC in person, as evidenced by the 20.3 per cent rise in dollars spent at hotels, says the report.

“Toronto’s hotel occupancy rates were in the high 90s — which doesn’t usually happen in April,” notes Wright.

UFC Canada is finalizing an economic impact report on Toronto’s UFC bonanza that is expected out in August, he says, adding the $40 million estimate of the financial boon to Toronto is only a conservative estimate.

Another UFC bout will be held in either Toronto or Montreal in December.

D’Addario says after UFC 129’s huge success, Rogers Centre is looking at other big, one-time sporting events like a high profile boxing match down the road.

“It puts out a signal that we are open to being considered for major sporting, music and convention events,” says Middleton.

Normally at Shoeless Joe’s, Gavilanes doesn’t charge customers to watch UFC telecasts. But he wanted to prevent problems at the door the night of the event by selling out in advance since the downtown core was so busy, he explains.

Ringing up UFC impact

$11.5 — UFC earned a single-day event gate record for Rogers at $11.5 million

19.2 — Per cent jump in dollars spent at local restaurants week-over-week

15.7 — Per cent jump in dollars spent at area bars week over week

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